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theatre

Interview with Tommy Steele about The Glenn Miller Story

Tommy Steele joins Backstage Pass to tell us about his
current show The Glenn Miller Story which arrives at the Edinburgh Playhouse
next week. (26th - 30th January)

Thanks for joining us Tommy, tell us about how The
Glenn Miller Story came to be and who had the idea.

Well, it all started after I gave a
lecture to some secondary school pupils about rock ‘n’ roll and country music,
and this little girl, who was probably about 12, asked me what it was like to
sing with Glenn Miller, to which I laughed and said, “I’m not that old!” I told
this story to friend Bill Kenwright over dinner one evening and he said, “That’s it….the Glenn Miller
Story, we can do a stage musical about it”. And when I asked him who will play
Glenn Miller, he said, “You are”. Despite my protests that I am a pensioner and
English, and Glenn Miller was young and American, Bill insisted and said, “it
calls for a song and dance man – you”. I said, “Bill, I’m too old to play Glenn
Miller.” To which he replied, “Tommy, you’re never too old.” So he ended up
talking me into it!

So it was impossible to turn down then, the role of
a lifetime?

Glenn Miller is
my idol. I was taken by my parents to see him when I was a little boy. I was a
kid during the Blitz. The bombs were dropping everywhere and in 1942 the
Americans came into the war. I was only four and all of a sudden over American
Forces Network came this music saying Glenn Miller’s coming to England, my mum
and dad were thrilled. My dad took me to the Albert Hall to see him. Today, all
I can remember is this wonderful sound and then came the mystery of his death.
It’s a great story. Glenn Miller was a man searching for the perfect sound and
I loved that whole tale of him being so meticulous about his music. When you
add that to the tragedy, you have all the material for a musical theatre show. It’s
an adventure in music you won’t stop tapping to.

Without giving too much away before it opens later
this month, tell us a bit about what the show is all about.

It’s a show
about a man looking for a sound, then finding it. And it is a fully blown song
and dance musical, with a big orchestra. It’s got a wonderful ‘taste’ to it,
that’s all I can say. But this is not a concert, it’s a musical. People ask, “Are you going to be conducting the band?” I start it as me at
78, and get younger. I am Glenn Miller. The film is iconic, wonderful, lovely,
the great Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson. James Stewart played him when he was
60. Age doesn’t matter as much in theatre as it does in film – people break out
into song and dance, and that’s not real, so anything can happen. It’s a great
example of music from the swing era, when he started out in the ‘30s, and it
works beautifully.

What's it like bringing
a show like this together, from the songs to the script to your supporting cast
– are you a perfectionist when it come to your craft?

I think to be a perfectionist you have to know what
perfection is. I’m always searching for things to be better. In my business,
someone gives you a script, and you read the script, then someone gives you a
score, so you read the score. Then you go to rehearsals and sometimes it’s
nothing like you imagined it. Because a director comes in to it, a
choreographer comes into it, a designer comes into it. Then the next thing you
know, you’re asking, “can we try this, and can we try that?” and in the end you
drive yourself mad!

You opened the tour in
Wimbledon and are playing 11 venues in 11 weeks and cover a lot of ground, from
Southampton right up to Edinburgh – how do you find touring, isn’t it
exhausting?

It’s never that strenuous when you’re in a great
show and you can’t wait to sing the songs, do the dances. I can’t really
explain it but you walk on stage, do two and a half hours and you’ve got an
audience listening, you can’t be luckier than that, can you? I have as much fun
going from here to Manchester as I do from going to my house to the
Palladium every day, it's the excitement of going to the theatre.When you go
out on tour and start going north, south, east and west of London there are
loads of great theatres out there and the people in those towns, they want to
see great shows but they don't get them because it costs a lot of money to
travel them. I always say if I'm going to do a show I have to do three months
first on the road because I love to get the reaction of those audiences. They
can't get to London every time to see a great musicals so the great musicals
come to them. Harold Fielding who I did all those great shows with, Half a
Sixpence, Singing in the Rain etc, he did it the other way he used to say once
we've done it in the West End we must to two years on the road. I tour because
I want to be on the stage and I love meeting people.

You said you think you’re too old
to play Glenn Miller, you turn the grand old age of 80 next year and you’re
about to embark on a tour of the UK for three months – no plans to retire just
yet then?

You don’t really retire from showbiz and I’m doing
what I love. You can’t ask for more than that, can you? And people keep paying
me to work!